Have you ever wondered how to change your cleaning business into a success, even though you know you’ve made some mistakes…?

If you’re anything like most people, you may scroll through your Facebook or Linked In newsfeed and marvel at how amazing and successful everyone is – all the good news they share, the awards, the accolades, the adulation…

Do you ever think about the other option?

What would it look like if your feed was full of bad news, bad decisions, things that didn’t work, awards that they didn’t win…

I was wondering about this myself the other day, and thinking

“Wouldn’t it be cool to learn from other peoples’ mistakes sometimes?”

So, I’m going to share something I’ve NEVER shared with my community before – because this was definitely a mistake…

A big, fat, embarrassing failure.

Back in 2008/09 my husband’s cleaning company, Cleancorp, was starting to do really well, and I thought to myself… well if we’re ‘cleaning up’ (pardon the pun) on Google with one company, imagine how well we’d go if we had 2 cleaning companies on the first page of Google…

My big, fat failure, The White Lotus Team…

It had to be different of course. Look and sound different, and of course have a different service offering – so after months and months of work, building the website, writing the content and finding just the “right” images (not to mention the considerable expense), The White Lotus Team was born.

This cleaning business was focused on providing green cleaning and (of all things) feng shui services – I wanted to provide services that I thought would make us SO DIFFERENT that no-one would be able to match our offering (I know, right… WHAT ON EARTH was I thinking?!!!).

So, we promoted it with Google Adwords campaigns, and got a big fat zero – week after week. Sure people were hitting the page, but there just weren’t any conversions – you see, I hadn’t gone out to the market and done what I should have done:

A TON OF RESEARCH

Months went by, and I stubbornly tweaked, the copy on the website, changed the images, updated the ads – and literally by this time, had ONLY 2 customers – who incidentally didn’t give a ‘fig’ about the feng shui services, they just wanted a clean office…

Meanwhile, we were still spending a lot of money on Google Adwords. Our ROI (If I’d had the courage to measure it back then…) would have been definitely on the ‘minus’ scale.

And as any small business owner can attest, you’d just can’t afford to waste money – sometimes, you’ve just got to face the truth.

My day of truth came – it was hard, and I felt like a complete failure, but I had to close The White Lotus Team down… ironically, not that much to close, because we only had 2 clients, which we switched to our other (successful) cleaning business :)…

So today’s blog video is for cleaning business owners who have experienced a failure, a disappointment, or perhaps an unfortunate discovery in your cleaning business. You need to watch this video, and once you have, I’d love to hear your feedback. What have you done that you wish you hadn’t in your cleaning business? What are you doing better today than you’ve ever done before..? Leave me your comments below and I promise I read and reply to every one.

Ok, so now you have my confession…. 🙂

Ready to hear what we need to do to recover from our mistakes, and what may be holding you back right now, from success? Here’s how to change your cleaning business.

P.S. If you’re serious about business growth, come join us at Cleaning Marketer – a community where cleaning business owners gain access to information that attracts prospects, makes sales and keeps top clients on their roster. Need a few quick ideas to get you started?

You’re a diligent boss who’s careful to hire the ‘standouts’….but you’re finding it challenging to say the least, to get the right applicants to even show up for an interview, much less be a great fit for your cleaning business.

You hope they’ll stick around so that you can continue to provide superior service to your clients with a reliable cleaning team. You want to keep hiring exceptional people, but also recognize and encourage a long-term commitment to the job. Below are some practical examples on how to do just that.

Know Your Company’s Hiring Reputation.

It’s great to know your reputation with clients in order to stay profitable, but knowing how prospective employees regard your company is also essential.Your public persona inadvertently tells those out in the job market how they’ll be treated. Does your staff speak of you highly? Do your social media channels and website give the impression that your company offers a rewarding experience for its employees? College kids with good grades can also make amazing staff, just ask Student Maid… Each of their team must meet a 3.5 minimum GPA requirement to even be considered for the job – and they’re having great success in hiring great staff, who are committed to them and their clients.

Pro Tip: Become a ‘role-model’ company…. the type of organization that people look at as more than just a paycheck. Be a paycheck with purpose…

Conduct Interviews with Current Staff.

We know it seems strange, but interviewing existing employees who’ve made it through the long haul with you can be incredibly beneficial in the hiring process. Find out the reasons for their loyalty and what makes your company a great place to work. Offer a referral bonus program to encourage employees to recruit good prospects for you…

Establish the Right Company Culture

Allow staff to develop strong bonds. Make your company a place of respect and active listening. If your employees feel like their feedback is heard and even implemented occasionally, it can make a significant impact in workplace contentment. Treating people well, especially in the early stages of employment, is proven to boost retention, and will definitely boost loyalty.

Pro Tip: Ask your team: “What can we do to help make your job better?”

Recognize That Rewards Go Beyond Money

While bonus checks are always eagerly welcomed, recognition in front of peers, involvement in company parties and group activities, or even lunches with you and the rest of the team can make a crucial difference in keeping someone around. Verbally recognizing good work is key. It’s easy to forget to do so on a consistent basis, but people relish this praise and work harder because of it.

Pro Tip: Something that Jancoa does (that I love), is they take a cold can of Coke in to their employees when they go and do site quality visits and while they’re there, they thank their team for their hard work…

Show Them a Real Future

Hire and promote from within when possible in order to spur motivation. Delegate responsibilities that help your team members grow and gain relevant skills. Encourage ownership over job duties and thinking of themselves as ‘problem solvers and relationship builders’ when they’re out at a clients’ site.

“No such thing as spare time. No such thing as free time. No such thing as down time.

All you’ve got is life time. GO”! Henry Rollins

Lisa x

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First time to our blog…? Welcome, it’s great to have you here 🙂 Want to know more about us – check us out here.

Cleaning Marketer works exclusively with cleaning businesses to help them attract more prospects, make more sales, and keep their clients longer.

Want fast business growth? Register for the next Cleaning Business School – 8 Weeks of Fast Growth Ideas for Cleaning Businesses who want to attract more prospects, make more sales and keep their clients longer.

Prefer a live event in either San Diego or New York City in 2017? Get inspired, empowered and take your market by storm. Book now.

Do You Know the 5 key points every cleaning business should know before marketing online?

What are the 5 key points every cleaning business should know before marketing online? If you’re running or own a cleaning business, one of the most important things you need to know is that in today’s economy, you need to stay relevant. Especially when it comes to marketing your cleaning services.

Whether your focus is on janitorial, residential, carpet cleaning, industrial cleaning or all of these services, your customers needs are evolving faster than at any other time in history – it can be overwhelming for some cleaning businesses just to know where to start in order to keep current with their marketing.

Today’s marketplace is shifting and changing in ways that most of us wouldn’t have predicted even 5 years ago. Make no mistake, if you don’t market your cleaning business you won’t make sales.

And sales is 100% of profit.

Here are the 5 key points every cleaning business should know before marketing their business online:

# 1 – Decision makers are everywhere – not just at the top

This is especially important if you are a B2B (business to business) operation, like Janitorial. Just because someone has the authority to make a purchase for a business, does not mean they are going to be the one making the actual decision. This is an extremely important distinction to make because if you direct all your marketing towards the higher level executives of a business, or the perceived decision makers – you’re missing a huge opportunity.

# 2 Change your focus

In business today, dismissing junior employees could mean overlooking the exact people you need to be noticed by… Remember, it’s often the more junior employees who do the researching for new cleaning services. If you can build a good relationship with them right from the start, they will be much more likely to influence a decision in your favour…

What’s the definition of a “Millennial”?

# 3 – You cannot avoid millennials any longer

Because Millennials are the first generation to have grown up with the Internet, they are far more focussed on technology, and they use technology for everything. What this means for cleaning businesses, is that to market yourselves effectively to millennials, you need to get online. From now on, you should be using technology in a whole new way.

Millennials will be influencing workplaces more and more, especially as they move into more senior roles in the future. If you aren’t marketing to this group yet, you definitely will need to in the future… so, my advice would be why wait? Start right now.

# 4 – Mobile is more crucial than ever

You’re possibly reading this on your mobile device.. These days everyone uses their mobile to gather information before they make a buying decision – and yes, that also goes for businesses.

As a cleaning business, it’s wise to give your potential new customers the opportunity to interact with you over mobile at every stage of their buying process (even the purchasing stage… if you don’t have this automated, you are missing out on a lot of opportunities)…

# 5 – The role of video in marketing has changed

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ll know that video is now an essential part of having a conversation with your prospects. In fact, your prospects, are using video as a way to compare products, check out reviews and share with colleagues or friends.

What this means for a cleaning business is that because video is forming such a big part of the decision making conversation, you need to make sure you have plenty of engaging video content available for your viewers, so that your target audience – whether carpet cleaning, residential, commercial or any other type of cleaning service, can engage with your brand at each stage of their buying journey.

Conclusion

Marketing strategies that may have worked even a year ago for your cleaning business, will lose their effectiveness over time. As more and more tech-savvy consumers look for cleaning services, it will be the cleaning services who use modern marketing methods to reach their audience, who will win.

What are your struggles in marketing your cleaning business? Let me know in the comments below (I read and reply to every comment)…

Today’s quote:

“Stay focused, believe in yourself and trust your own ability and judgment”.

Mark Cuban

Lisa x

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First time to our blog…? Welcome, it’s great to have you here 🙂 Want to know more about us – check us out here.

Cleaning Marketer works exclusively with select cleaning businesses to help them attract more prospects, make more sales, and keep their clients longer.

Want fast business growth? Register for Cleaning Business School – 4 Weeks of Fast Growth Ideas for Cleaning Businesses who want to attract more prospects, make more sales and keep their clients longer.

Prefer a live event in either San Diego or New York City? Get inspired, empowered and take your market by storm. Book now.

If you’re a cleaning business owner, I’m sure you’ve wondered how to manage a cleaning team more effectively, so that it takes up less of your time… right?

It’s one of the most common things I hear from time poor cleaning business owners. Instead of focusing on winning new accounts, they’re often spending countless hours every day, managing staff and dealing with issues that stop them from growing their business.

It’s enough to make you scream…

Or, they have team members who are just the wrong fit. But they keep them on out of either misplaced loyalty, or fear of what will happen if they move the ineffective staff out of their business.

It’s enough to make you scream…

However, if you have team members who just aren’t ‘cutting it’, you need to show leadership to the rest of your team, and make the necessary changes. Interestingly, recent studies have shown that over the past decade, many organisations have been investing in developing their leadership rather than developing management skills.

(A cleaning business owner needs both of these skills. If you feel like you’re lacking in these areas, investing in cleaning business coaching, will be a great way to shorten your learning curve..)

Management skills are those ‘one on one’ relationships between cleaning business owners (or managers) and the people in their team.

Having strong management skills, leads to a strong business. It’s as simple as that. So what do strong managers do differently to everyone else?

They communicate. Really well, and, have the difficult conversations when they need to.

Managing and leading a cleaning team is much easier when everyone understands their role. In other words, they understand the expectations of you, their manager, and the customers’ expectations.

And they work together as a team. Working in alignment, rather than individually because good management shares the vision for the business. Company alignment to a clear (shared) purpose is the biggest motivator you can create as a leader seeking to achieve scalable growth in your cleaning business. Once your team buys into the vision that you have co-created with them, it will be easier for you to delegate and focus on growth, because you won’t need to micro-manage all of the details, because your team will take responsibility and ownership.

Good employees, share that vision, because they helped create it. They helped create the purpose (your why), the values (the how), and the mission (what you’re striving for).

Good employees, share that vision, because they helped create it. They helped create the purpose (your why), the values (the how), and the mission (what you’re striving for).

So, effective cleaning team leadership and management, is all about the shared purpose of the business, and the conversations you have with your team. Having great communication – what you say, and how you say it, is paramount.

Within a cleaning business there are so many different conversations we are having each day. Conversations around ideas, delegating tasks, feedback from colleagues and clients, and the conversations that happen in our meetings.

To help you have better conversations here are the keys to success:

A good conversation is two-way. It involves speaking and listening, and it’s imperative that everyone takes part in the conversation and is heard.

Secondly, be clear on what the conversation is about, and what the objective/s of the conversation are: “Today, we’re going to discuss the feedback we received from Mrs Smith, and how we can fix our process to ensure that never happens in the future” .

Be respectful and open. It’s ok to be vulnerable with your team, it helps them to understand your position, and build trust..

Finally, be mindful. Try to focus on building the relationship and encouraging new thinking. If a team member comes up with a great idea, thank them for their input, and encourage more: “That’s a fantastic idea Jane, how do you think we could incorporate that into our service offering”….

Could it be true that nobody wants a part time cleaning job in your town? I was the keynote speaker at a big cleaning industry trade event last week, and one of the recurring questions I had was ‘how can I recruit the best staff into my cleaning business’…

It seems like finding and keeping the right staff can be an extremely difficult process for a cleaning business. But it doesn’t need to be…

In today’s video, I’m sharing some great ideas that you can use right now, to start attracting the right people into your business… Go check out the video, and let me know what you think in the comments below, and if you’d like some examples of good ads that will work for you, just drop me an email and I’ll send those over to you… In the meantime, if you have a great way of attracting new staff into your cleaning business, I’d love to hear it…

Once you’ve had a chance to watch, I’d love to know if you’ve ever struggled to get staff…. and how you overcame that…?

Are you doing something amazing to attract cleaning staff, that’s getting you great results?

That’s the great thing about the Cleaning Industry, you meet so many people who’ll join you for sections of the journey. It’s a relationship business, where happiness and business success comes from within. If you think well, you’ll do well..

Today’s quote:“The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.” William James

Lisa x

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First time to our blog…? Welcome, great to have you here 🙂 Want to know more about us – check us out here.

Cleaning Marketer works exclusively with select cleaning businesses to help them attract more prospects, make more sales, and keep their clients longer. To learn more about our industry-leading Client Attraction System, click here.

More specifically they are likely bored when they hear from you on social media.. ESPECIALLY, if you are posting about before and after toilet shots, or floor shots…. sorry to everyone out there in ‘cleaning business owner land’, but,

[SHOUTING:] No-one cares!

It’s the same ol’ same for most cleaning businesses, they just keep focussing on themselves, and not what’s interesting to their prospects and clients… oh, and that’s if you even contact them at all.

That’s the great thing about the Cleaning Industry, you meet so many people who’ll join you for sections of the journey. It’s a relationship business, where happiness and business success comes from within. If you think well, you’ll do well..

Today’s quote:“Find people who play at those things that for you, are work…. ” John Assaraf

Lisa x

………………………………………………………………………………………………

First time to our blog…? Welcome, great to have you here 🙂 Want to know more about us – check us out here.

Cleaning Marketer works exclusively with select cleaning businesses to help them attract more prospects, make more sales, and keep their clients longer. To learn more about our industry-leading Client Attraction System, click here.

Have you built up enough ‘satisfaction-equity’ with your clients?Today’s video may be the most important cleaning industry tip and concept you’ll hear – especially if you’re striving for happiness in your business.

And it’s all about complaints.

Most of us in the cleaning industry deal with complaints from time to time, and let’s be honest here, it’s never great to hear from a client that they’re not happy, or that somehow, our commercial cleaning, janitorial or maid service team have let them down.

But what if the conversation was all about feedback for your cleaning business?

Good old fashioned, honest, feedback….

Most people, particularly business owners, love feedback.

….So, what would happen to your cleaning business if you changed your perception? What would happen if you turned that complaint into what it it really is, which is ‘feedback’…?

Once you’ve had a chance to watch, I’d love to know if you’ve ever struggled with complaints in your cleaning business.

That’s the great thing about the Cleaning Industry, you meet so many people who’ll join you for sections of the journey. It’s a relationship business, where happiness and business success comes from within. If you think well, you’ll do well..

Today’s quote:What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise. Oscar Wilde

Lisa x

………………………………………………………………………………………………

First time to our blog…? Welcome, great to have you here 🙂 Want to know more about us – check us out here.

Cleaning Marketer works exclusively with select cleaning businesses to help them attract more prospects, make more sales, and keep their clients longer. To learn more about our industry-leading Client Attraction System, click here.

If you head is nodding yes, you’re going to love today’s video episode..

And honestly…

Even if you feel pretty darn good about your attitude to your cleaning business, there’s always a next level to reach for. I mean, I’m a business owner and I coach business owners for a living and I’m always catching little habits and patterns to change.

In today’s video, you’ll learn why commitment totally eclipses interest when it comes to running a cleaning business. (Pssst..I even talk about what the big shift was for me going through this process 🙂

Once you’ve had a chance to watch, I’d love to know if you’ve ever struggled with your commitment to your business and…

That’s the great thing about the Cleaning Industry, you meet so many people who’ll join you for sections of the journey. It’s a relationship business, where happiness and business success comes from within. If you think well, you’ll do well..

Today’s quote:Be the best. It’s the only market that’s not crowded. George Whalin

Lisa x

………………………………………………………………………………………………

First time to our blog…? Welcome, great to have you here 🙂 Want to know more about us – check us out here.

Cleaning Marketer works exclusively with select cleaning businesses to help them attract more prospects, make more sales, and keep their clients longer. To learn more about our industry-leading Client Attraction System, click here.

Cleaning business owners want to attract more prospects, make more sales, and keep clients longer, but their marketing strategies just won’t get them there. There are 6 mistakes that cleaning businesses make with their marketing, and if you’re frustrated because the results from your marketing are less than stellar, rest assured, you are definitely not alone.

Stop Trying To Be Everything to Everyone. You can’t be the cheapest cleaners in town and the most expensive all at the same time. You don’t see Target trying to compete with Bloomingdales. It’s the same in the cleaning industry – decide what you want your business to be, and stick to it.

Failing To Know Who Your Ideal Client Is. I’ve heard it a thousand times “but I can clean for anyone”… sorry – but you can’t market to ‘anyone’ – you need to know who the ideal clients for your cleaning business are, they’re the ones you want to attract and who will want your services, be good to deal with, refer you to others, and give you testimonials.

Not Having A Unique Selling Proposition. Want to win in the cleaning industry? You must give your prospects reasons to choose your cleaning business over the competition. Think of it this way, you all have mops, buckets and vacuums right? The prospect knows that – so to them, you all seem the same, and the only way they can choose is price…. Unless you define what you do better than your competition, which might include various certifications you have, or global brands who use your service etc.

Taking a “Hope” Approach To Your Marketing. Ok, so you’ve defined your ideal clients, now you need to reach them with your marketing materials. You need to match the media to your target audience. That will require research and planning, but failing to do this will cost you time and money – lots of it..

Keep Your Expectations Real. Maybe you’ve lost a few accounts recently, and to replace them, you want to throw money at advertising. This may get you some new prospects, but what about the following month? Remember, not all ad campaigns work, and you may need to test and tweak before you see results.

Wait for Your Marketing to Mature. One postcard mailer is not going to make much of a dent in you marketing; nor will 1 advertisement in the local paper, or 1 ad on Google Adwords or Facebook. Marketing is a long-term proposition that needs you to be disciplined. If you’ve decided who you want to be as a business, who you want your ideal clients to be, and have clearly defined your unique selling proposition, and team that up with research on the best media to to reach your ideal clients, and you’re willing to invest in a long-term approach to acquire new clients, then you will be rewarded..

The best way to to achieve all of the above is to have a S.Y.S.T.E.M (save yourself some time, energy and money), that hustles all day, every day, every time to attract the clients that you want into your cleaning business.

Cleaning Marketer works exclusively with select cleaning businesses to help them attract more prospects, make more sales, and keep their clients longer. To learn more about our industry-leading Cleaning Business School, click here.

Today’s quote:Perseverance is the story behind every successful person. Steve Case

Lisa x

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PS: Want real business growth? I have set aside some time to have a 1-on-1 breakthrough strategy session with you and to help you implement all the strategies I teach, to get more customers and profit… for FREE but very limited sessions are available (register here)

If you have a cleaning business and are trying to figure out how to generate more quality leads, sales, and increase the lifetime value of your customers right NOW, then you know it’s right for you and you can click here to apply now.

It took me about 10 minutes to make up my mind that our cleaning business needed automation, in my previous career – the business was extremely system focussed and I knew how powerful it was to have repeatable processes within a business.

But you may not be sure whether or not, it will be something that will help your business, or something that will take up a huge amount of your time.

At this point, you’re probably not too sure if ‘the old way’ won’t just work a little while longer. Problem is, you don’t want to be the last cleaning business owner to implement something that’s really going to help you.

That’s called missing the boat.

In today’s video, I’m sharing 3 crucial indicators to see if your business is ready or not…

Go check it out, and if you enjoy the video, leave me a comment, and go subscribe to my channel, where I share lots of free marketing ideas exclusively for cleaning business owners. These are ninja ideas, strategies and tactics that I have personally used to grow a multi-million dollar cleaning business, and they will work for you, if you implement them.

So go check out today’s video, and remember, let me know what you think.. 🙂